


Steps

by Oroburos69



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-12
Updated: 2013-08-12
Packaged: 2017-12-23 05:46:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/922703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oroburos69/pseuds/Oroburos69
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shanks can't say why or when it happened, but the rum just isn't any good anymore. He'd quit, except that he can't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Steps

Benn buys him a book, because Benn can't talk about this any more than Shanks can. The book is stupid, bright yellow with _Ten Steps To Quitting_ written out on the cover in big red letters.

The first is figuring out why he drinks in the first place, and Shanks downs a glass--just a little one--getting through the overly twee writing telling him to explore his feelings.

He tries, because Benn has gone all solemn on him and Lucky Roo is practically wasting away, but Shanks needs three more drinks before he can get any ideas and even then, they're stupid ideas. Rum makes him hurt less, except that he doesn't know why it hurts without it. Rum makes him happy, except that it doesn't really anymore. Not drinking rum makes his skin crawl and his vision darken, his stomach churn, and cold sweat drip down his neck. And that is true, but Benn said that it would pass if Shanks could just stick with it.

Another drink, and Shanks starts on the second step, _admitting that he has a problem._ The step's fucking stupid. He wouldn't be reading the damn book if he didn't have a goddamn problem. Shanks stews over it, annoyed, and when he looks up from the stupidly tiny print, he's drunk most of a bottle without noticing.

"Book's not helping," he tells Benn, hurling it into the sea with his only arm. He doesn't miss Benn's dismay, couldn't even if he tried. He feels restless, unsettled, and fucking terrified of ending his life as Newgate had, sick and dying of it and still drinking.

"Benn--" his voice is strangled, and he's got another bottle in his hand, and the seas themselves couldn't have told him how it got there. "He'll come soon, Benn."

His hat, and Luffy. They'll break this loop. Set him free. With Luffy there, he'll have no choice, he'll have to--

"So quit now, so he can meet the man he's expecting to," Benn says, and like everything he said these days, he words were sharp enough to cut. Shanks drinks instinctively to dull the pain, and then hates himself for the weakness. "Say yes, boss, and I'll drag you through this, best I can. I just..."

"Yeah?" Shanks asks, because he's deeply interested in what Benn 'just' needs from him in order to help him.

"I need you to want to quit."

Shanks throws the half-full bottle into the sea, and has to restrain himself from jumping in after it. "I want it, idiot. Of course I do. This--it _sucks_."

"Yeah?" Benn is bitter, and deep down Shanks knows he has every right. It's been a damn long road getting here, and Benn got the worst of him for a lot of it. "Alright. I'll make it happen."

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the One Piece Chaos meme, located here: http://serrende.dreamwidth.org/155281.html


End file.
